Alternate links: Google News | Twitter

The new Syrian regime has called for Bashar al-Assad's extradition, which the Kremlin has refused. The former tyrant is believed to have a frozen account with HSBC Bank in London with a balance of more than $51.5 million. Bashar al-Assad airlifted around $250 million in cash to Moscow. The transactions were carried out in a two-year period, 2018 and 2019, and included nearly two tons of $100 bills and currency notes of 500 Euros. These bank notes were flown to Moscow's Vnukovo airport and deposited in sanctioned Russian banks. Assad's relatives were secretly buying assets in Russia during the same period. (The Financial Times, 15 Dec 2024). With Bashar al-Assad's usefulness gone to Vladimir Putin and his ill-gotten pelf safely in the hands of Russian banks, this assassination attempt allegation sounds plausible. Bashar al-Assad might have been safer fleeing to Iran, but it was the Russian military that secured and flew him to Moscow when rebels began closing in on him in Damascus.